Monday, August 12, 2013

Sex Education in Korea: A Phallus Garden in "Love Land" - "As late as the end of the 1980s, journalist and travel writer Simon Winchester reported that some hotel employees on the island performed as "professional icebreakers." In the evenings, the hotel would offer an entertainment program featuring lap dances and others raunchy or risqué highlights. Its purpose was to help the intimidated, freshly married novices relax -- and perhaps to give them some ideas for later. Winchester remarks wryly about one of these hotel entertainers that he probably deflowered more women than any other man in Asia... Whoever has meandered about between the gigantic stone labia and climbed the 10 meter (33 feet) marble phallus probably feels a little less repressed afterwards. Still, none of this is proof of an unusually open or relaxed attitude to sex. The opposite is true. A few thoroughly rule-governed exceptions apart, the things that are shown and imagined in Love Land are kept under cover elsewhere in South Korea. In this sense, the theme park is not unlike Asian porn mags or fertility rites: It's a small isle of freedom in an ocean of taboos."

Attention to anger-relevant and irrelevant stimuli following naturalistic insult - "An interaction between anger classification, word, and insult was found. Specifically, anger words interfered with the performance of high trait anger-insulted subjects, but not with performance of low trait anger-insulted subjects."Those who get angry more easily had more problems performing a cognitive task when their anger was stimulated. Which suggests that people who typically get angry easily are more irrational when angry

The Psychology of Irrationality: Why People Make Foolish, Self-Defeating Choices - "We put people into various emotional states, using a variety of strong procedures (see Leith & Baumeister, 1996). We found repeatedly that most people would make the correct choice of the two dollar lottery. This was especially common among people in neutral moods and in good moods. But people who were upset strongly tended to make the foolish, risky choice of the long shot. Thus, emotional distress produced a tendency to take stupid risks... people who were upset simply failed to think through the implications and consequences."Again, anger makes people irrational

Dickin' around at the Smallest Penis in Brooklyn Pageant - "Gilronan spoke to us after winning his crown and posing for pictures, telling us “it feels good to win, not gonna lie.” The 27-year-old Briarwood, Queens resident is an actual employee of the Williamsburg UPS store and took no shame in winning the Smallest Penis in Brooklyn competition, declaring “This is going on Facebook.” In response to our question on whether or not he’d be bringing this mark of distinction up in his dating life, Gilronan pointed out that this “is something no other guy on a date will be able to talk about.”"3/6 of the finalists (all with masks) have head hair which suggests that they are Asian (though one's hair looks like George Clooney)

Interacting With Sexist Men Triggers Social Identity Threat Among Female Engineers - "Men who scored highly on a subtle measure of sexism showed more dominance and sexual interest, according to observer’s impressions, ratings of their body posture, and the confederate’s reports, than did men who scored lower... they reported more attraction to the confederate when he behaved in a dominant and sexually interested way... Women in the sexist cues condition reported more positive feelings about the interaction than did women in the no sexist cues condition, even as they underperformed on the math problems,
suggesting that sexist behavior can undermine women’s performance, even when it is viewed quite positively... As women underperformed intellectually, they reported feeling more attracted to the man who displayed dominant and sexually interested behavior. This result underscores the complexity, and potential intractability, of patterns of interaction between
men and women. A sexist man’s behavior may be reinforced by women’s resulting attraction to him, creating a cycle that further impairs women’s ability to succeed in domains in which they are negatively stereotyped... The sexist men, and confederates trained to emulate their behavior, did not even raise issues of women’s contributions or representations in math and
engineering. Instead, their behavior revealed subtle dominance and sexual interest that was nonetheless sufficient to trigger social identity threat among women... A peer’s suggestion that a male instructor might be sexist can undermine women’s evaluation of his instruction and their test performance, even in absence of actual sexist behavior "It seems it pays for men to be sexist
How long until body posture gets policed by the PC squad?
In the absence of evidence of sexist acts, it seems once again that talking about the problem (imagined or even if it's real) makes it worse. So obsession about sexism is self-defeating

Miss World 2013 bikini ban: why it's no victory for feminists - "For some time it's been clear that the interests and tactics of certain types of feminism and certain types of religious fundamentalism not only converge, but seem to complement each other. The consultation resulting from Rhoda Grant's upcoming bill in Scottish Parliament hoping to "end demand" for sex work, for example, are dominated by radical women's groups and conservative church members. Sometimes when it comes to the far right and the far left, you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference. Especially where sex might be involved. And it continues to be surprising that many feminists seem to have no great problem with this. Sure, the ends some wanted have been achieved. Bikinis gone thanks to the Pope or Muslims or whoever it is this time. But at what cost? As they say where I come from (the US), ‘you got to dance with the one who brung you’. Such dirty alliances always, always, come with a hidden cost."

Feminists boycotting Twitter is not the way to end trolling - "On Twitter, the definition of a troll sometimes means "prolific abuser". But it's also become an umbrella term that can mean anything from "someone who disagrees with me" to "someone with fewer followers than me". It's a slippery definition that is far too often trotted out to silence dissent. I'd be blocked. You'd be blocked. Eventually everyone except that Harry from One Direction and a ‘lolcats’ account would be chucked off Twitter as we all reported each other for abuse... This is not to say sexist bullying isn't a problem. It is a big one. Bullying of all kinds is rife on Twitter. I know, because I've been bullied by – and blocked – some of the very people who are shouting the loudest about this... Making it easier to report someone for 'abuse' without defining the terms or means of abuse is an invitation to (wait for it) abuse... the author Caitlin Moran, have suggested that Twitter should be behind a paywall, thus connecting online identities to financial access. Ah yes that old standby of demonising 'anonymous trolls' again. Isn't it ironic that this actually started because of a campaign to get Jane Austen on banknotes – an author who wrote all of her books anonymously? In fact, had Austen lived in this age, I think she would have been called a troll. Fans of her work continually go on about how subversive it is. Think on it: woman hiding behind anonymity sends up the worst excesses and hypocrisy of her class. Classic trolling!... raising your head above the parapet attracts abuse. If you are a woman, it will be abuse about your sex. If gay, about your orientation. If black, about your race. And so on and so forth. Bullies go for the lowest-hanging fruit; they always do. It is not confined to 'anonymous trolls'. People can and will also spew all kinds of racist, classist, genderist nonsense under their own names and above the line. Like the time two 'feminist' columnists started tweeting about my skin. Nice... The question of how to best handle trolls when you are catapulted into the spotlight is difficult and there are no straightforward answers. Especially because one woman's troll is another woman's provocateur"

Yale Sex Week: Porn never goes away when it's banned, David Cameron - Telegraph - "whenever I think about rape, porn and the question of who regulates our sexual culture, I think about the most porn-saturated environment I’ve ever endured. I think about the lofty academic towers of Yale University. Home to Yale Sex Week... Start banning anything that comes close to a rape scenario, and you’ll block out feminist attempts to reclaim or experiment with centuries-old erotic traditions. You’ll even block sado-masochism that has women on top (does it degrade men, this time? Or does it degrade women, because the dominatrix is still sexualised for male lust? It’s all too confusing!) Gothic images are obviously fantasy (how many castle-owners can afford the metal-polishing costs on gleaming dungeons, nowadays?), but impossibly curvaceous cheerleaders ‘consensually’ putting out for the football captain do a far better job of masquerading as ‘real sex’ guides for today’s teenagers... As Telegraph Women’s Editor, Emma Barnett, learned on air, rape threats are the gift of men who believe “feminists like Caroline were undermining what it is to be a man”. But Gary, the self-described “predator” behind this gem also tells us that Criado-Perez “would know these men wouldn’t actually come and rape her. They don’t mean it. Rape is a metaphor”. Thanks Gary. I hadn’t yet got to the part about metaphor in my literature PhD, but now I know"

A high-fat breakfast of bacon and eggs may be the healthiest start to the day, report shows - "the first meal eaten after a night's sleep appears to programme the metabolism for the rest of the day,.. mice fed a meal higher in fat after waking had normal metabolic profiles. In contrast, mice that ate a more carbohydrate-rich diet in the morning and consumed a high-fat meal at the end of the day saw increased weight gain, adiposity, glucose intolerance and other markers of the metabolic syndrome."

Sex Education in Korea: A Phallus Garden in "Love Land" - "As late as the end of the 1980s, journalist and travel writer Simon Winchester reported that some hotel employees on the island performed as "professional icebreakers." In the evenings, the hotel would offer an entertainment program featuring lap dances and others raunchy or risqué highlights. Its purpose was to help the intimidated, freshly married novices relax -- and perhaps to give them some ideas for later. Winchester remarks wryly about one of these hotel entertainers that he probably deflowered more women than any other man in Asia... Whoever has meandered about between the gigantic stone labia and climbed the 10 meter (33 feet) marble phallus probably feels a little less repressed afterwards. Still, none of this is proof of an unusually open or relaxed attitude to sex. The opposite is true. A few thoroughly rule-governed exceptions apart, the things that are shown and imagined in Love Land are kept under cover elsewhere in South Korea. In this sense, the theme park is not unlike Asian porn mags or fertility rites: It's a small isle of freedom in an ocean of taboos."

Attention to anger-relevant and irrelevant stimuli following naturalistic insult - "An interaction between anger classification, word, and insult was found. Specifically, anger words interfered with the performance of high trait anger-insulted subjects, but not with performance of low trait anger-insulted subjects."Those who get angry more easily had more problems performing a cognitive task when their anger was stimulated. Which suggests that people who typically get angry easily are more irrational when angry

The Psychology of Irrationality: Why People Make Foolish, Self-Defeating Choices - "We put people into various emotional states, using a variety of strong procedures (see Leith & Baumeister, 1996). We found repeatedly that most people would make the correct choice of the two dollar lottery. This was especially common among people in neutral moods and in good moods. But people who were upset strongly tended to make the foolish, risky choice of the long shot. Thus, emotional distress produced a tendency to take stupid risks... people who were upset simply failed to think through the implications and consequences."Again, anger makes people irrational

Dickin' around at the Smallest Penis in Brooklyn Pageant - "Gilronan spoke to us after winning his crown and posing for pictures, telling us “it feels good to win, not gonna lie.” The 27-year-old Briarwood, Queens resident is an actual employee of the Williamsburg UPS store and took no shame in winning the Smallest Penis in Brooklyn competition, declaring “This is going on Facebook.” In response to our question on whether or not he’d be bringing this mark of distinction up in his dating life, Gilronan pointed out that this “is something no other guy on a date will be able to talk about.”"3/6 of the finalists (all with masks) have head hair which suggests that they are Asian (though one's hair looks like George Clooney)

Interacting With Sexist Men Triggers Social Identity Threat Among Female Engineers - "Men who scored highly on a subtle measure of sexism showed more dominance and sexual interest, according to observer’s impressions, ratings of their body posture, and the confederate’s reports, than did men who scored lower... they reported more attraction to the confederate when he behaved in a dominant and sexually interested way... Women in the sexist cues condition reported more positive feelings about the interaction than did women in the no sexist cues condition, even as they underperformed on the math problems,
suggesting that sexist behavior can undermine women’s performance, even when it is viewed quite positively... As women underperformed intellectually, they reported feeling more attracted to the man who displayed dominant and sexually interested behavior. This result underscores the complexity, and potential intractability, of patterns of interaction between
men and women. A sexist man’s behavior may be reinforced by women’s resulting attraction to him, creating a cycle that further impairs women’s ability to succeed in domains in which they are negatively stereotyped... The sexist men, and confederates trained to emulate their behavior, did not even raise issues of women’s contributions or representations in math and
engineering. Instead, their behavior revealed subtle dominance and sexual interest that was nonetheless sufficient to trigger social identity threat among women... A peer’s suggestion that a male instructor might be sexist can undermine women’s evaluation of his instruction and their test performance, even in absence of actual sexist behavior "It seems it pays for men to be sexist
How long until body posture gets policed by the PC squad?
In the absence of evidence of sexist acts, it seems once again that talking about the problem (imagined or even if it's real) makes it worse. So obsession about sexism is self-defeating

Miss World 2013 bikini ban: why it's no victory for feminists - "For some time it's been clear that the interests and tactics of certain types of feminism and certain types of religious fundamentalism not only converge, but seem to complement each other. The consultation resulting from Rhoda Grant's upcoming bill in Scottish Parliament hoping to "end demand" for sex work, for example, are dominated by radical women's groups and conservative church members. Sometimes when it comes to the far right and the far left, you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference. Especially where sex might be involved. And it continues to be surprising that many feminists seem to have no great problem with this. Sure, the ends some wanted have been achieved. Bikinis gone thanks to the Pope or Muslims or whoever it is this time. But at what cost? As they say where I come from (the US), ‘you got to dance with the one who brung you’. Such dirty alliances always, always, come with a hidden cost."

Feminists boycotting Twitter is not the way to end trolling - "On Twitter, the definition of a troll sometimes means "prolific abuser". But it's also become an umbrella term that can mean anything from "someone who disagrees with me" to "someone with fewer followers than me". It's a slippery definition that is far too often trotted out to silence dissent. I'd be blocked. You'd be blocked. Eventually everyone except that Harry from One Direction and a ‘lolcats’ account would be chucked off Twitter as we all reported each other for abuse... This is not to say sexist bullying isn't a problem. It is a big one. Bullying of all kinds is rife on Twitter. I know, because I've been bullied by – and blocked – some of the very people who are shouting the loudest about this... Making it easier to report someone for 'abuse' without defining the terms or means of abuse is an invitation to (wait for it) abuse... the author Caitlin Moran, have suggested that Twitter should be behind a paywall, thus connecting online identities to financial access. Ah yes that old standby of demonising 'anonymous trolls' again. Isn't it ironic that this actually started because of a campaign to get Jane Austen on banknotes – an author who wrote all of her books anonymously? In fact, had Austen lived in this age, I think she would have been called a troll. Fans of her work continually go on about how subversive it is. Think on it: woman hiding behind anonymity sends up the worst excesses and hypocrisy of her class. Classic trolling!... raising your head above the parapet attracts abuse. If you are a woman, it will be abuse about your sex. If gay, about your orientation. If black, about your race. And so on and so forth. Bullies go for the lowest-hanging fruit; they always do. It is not confined to 'anonymous trolls'. People can and will also spew all kinds of racist, classist, genderist nonsense under their own names and above the line. Like the time two 'feminist' columnists started tweeting about my skin. Nice... The question of how to best handle trolls when you are catapulted into the spotlight is difficult and there are no straightforward answers. Especially because one woman's troll is another woman's provocateur"

Yale Sex Week: Porn never goes away when it's banned, David Cameron - Telegraph - "whenever I think about rape, porn and the question of who regulates our sexual culture, I think about the most porn-saturated environment I’ve ever endured. I think about the lofty academic towers of Yale University. Home to Yale Sex Week... Start banning anything that comes close to a rape scenario, and you’ll block out feminist attempts to reclaim or experiment with centuries-old erotic traditions. You’ll even block sado-masochism that has women on top (does it degrade men, this time? Or does it degrade women, because the dominatrix is still sexualised for male lust? It’s all too confusing!) Gothic images are obviously fantasy (how many castle-owners can afford the metal-polishing costs on gleaming dungeons, nowadays?), but impossibly curvaceous cheerleaders ‘consensually’ putting out for the football captain do a far better job of masquerading as ‘real sex’ guides for today’s teenagers... As Telegraph Women’s Editor, Emma Barnett, learned on air, rape threats are the gift of men who believe “feminists like Caroline were undermining what it is to be a man”. But Gary, the self-described “predator” behind this gem also tells us that Criado-Perez “would know these men wouldn’t actually come and rape her. They don’t mean it. Rape is a metaphor”. Thanks Gary. I hadn’t yet got to the part about metaphor in my literature PhD, but now I know"

A high-fat breakfast of bacon and eggs may be the healthiest start to the day, report shows - "the first meal eaten after a night's sleep appears to programme the metabolism for the rest of the day,.. mice fed a meal higher in fat after waking had normal metabolic profiles. In contrast, mice that ate a more carbohydrate-rich diet in the morning and consumed a high-fat meal at the end of the day saw increased weight gain, adiposity, glucose intolerance and other markers of the metabolic syndrome."